1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus to form individual sausage links or a chain of connected links from a sausage casing stuffed with a meat emulsion. The present apparatus provides an adjustment mechanism to readily control the length of the sausage link.
2. Prior Art
This invention is an improvement to the apparatus disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 279,895 filed July 2, 1981, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,447 the disclosure of which application is incorporated herein by reference. Apparatus to form individual sausage links from a casing stuffed with a meat or other food emulsion have been in use for some time. These machines normally form the individual links by a twisting process in which a portion of the filled casing is pinched at intervals along its length and the casing is twisted. As the casing is twisted, the meat emulsion or other filling material in the casing is forced away from the twisted portion of the casing to form the individual link. The above-mentioned application discloses an apparatus in which the link is formed without any twisting of the casing. The stuffed casing is contacted at spaced points along its length by forming arms which close onto the casing to force the meat emulsion away from the point of contact and form a link end in this manner. The apparatus consists of a series of forming arms which are mounted on a mounting plate or chain and capable of moving in an endless or continuous cycle. The distance between adjacent forming arms determines the length of the link to be made by the apparatus. In the preferred form of the apparatus, the forming arms are mounted on a circular plate or disc and the length of the link to be made can be adjusted by moving the forming arms inward or outward along the radius of the disc.
The forming arms are open and closed by a cam mechanism which is connected to the forming arms through a cam follower attached to the forming arms. When it is desired to change the length of the sausage to be made by the apparatus, it is necessary to move the forming arms radially inward or outward on the mounting disc or plate and also to change the cam that is used to actuate the forming arms. Adjustment of the length of the link is important to the sausage producer since the sausage producer sells the finished product by weight and it is necessary that a given weight of sausage be made up of a number of whole links, as fractional or part links are not accepted by consumers. If the sausage linking machine cannot be adjusted to give the proper weight for a link, a sausage producer may have to use larger or smaller diameter sausage casings to obtain the correct weight. A change in the diameter of the casing interrupts the production of the casing stuffing machines and wastes product which has been stuffed into casings of the improper diameter. Although the above-mentioned apparatus is capable of adjusting the link length, such adjustment can be time consuming since it requires that not only the movement of the individual forming arms but also the replacement of the cam in the apparatus.